The leper did not ask to be cured, he asked to be made clean.

Thursday,1/12/17

In the Holy land back then, leprosy was viewed as a double hardship.
It was a serioues disease that ate away the
leper’s flesh; but it was also a spiritual uncleanness that barred the sufferer
from entering the synagogue or the temple, and from taking part in any community
gatherings

It is significant that the leper did not ask Jesus .to make
him healthy, but to make him spiritually clean, entitling him to enter the
synagogue with family and friends.

Chapter Nine of John’s Gospel tells the charming story of
the man born blind. It took place on the
Jewish Sabbath that went from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.

Our school kids put on a play about the market people
packing away their wares in preparation for beginning their Sabbath in the
synagogue. At the same time, they were telling the man born blind that
his blindness made him too unclean to enter the synagogue.

The kidsplaying the people of the marketplace sang this song,

“The synagogue becomes
our home, when the sun sinks out of sight, the last day of the weary week, Holy
Sabbath, Friday night.”

After people had entered the synagogue, leaving the man alone outside, he saw Jesus coming, and he ran up to him,
asking him not to cure him but to make him clean.

The story should awaken us to the joys open to us when we
come together sharing our graces.